Another nail in TSA’s coffin

TSA screeners had failure rates of up to 75 percent in finding bomb components, according to a classified report leaked to USA Today. “Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.”

As usual, the excuses are hilarious: “The failure rates at Los Angeles and Chicago are ‘somewhat misleading’ because they don’t reflect screeners’ improved ability to find bombs, [spokeswoman] Howe said.”

Not hilarious at all is the unconscionable failure to improve security at great taxpayer expense and with far more personal intrusion and annoyance. “Tests earlier in 2002 showed screeners missing 60% of fake bombs. In the late 1990s, tests showed that screeners missed about 40% of fake bombs, according to a separate report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.”

It’s not as if this is actually “news.” TSA’s had its chance. Let’s call it a day.

Most fake bombs missed by screeners: 75% not detected at LAX; 60% at O’Hare [USA Today]